Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I accept the Deputy's point. However, there is a broader issue. The Oireachtas is not a benevolent bystander in all of this. I had to manage a political process that had many participants, including the Deputy's party. We have an agreement with her party which it wants me to honour, and I had to deliver that. It was an exceptionally difficult process. While I take the Deputy's point about the consequences of that for the sustainability of public expenditure, I wish to make two points. First, part of what put me in the situation I was in was honouring the agreement in the programme for Government and in the supply-and-confidence agreement with the Deputy's party, as I was committed to do. Second, I am doing all of this in the context of the party I represent, which worked with Deputy Burton's party when she was Tánaiste in the previous Government, continuing its work into this Administration. We have seen the State's deficit come down from 11% of our national income, which is all we make and sell in our country, to the possibility of eliminating the national deficit within the next 18 months. As people make claims, as they are entitled to, regarding how we manage public expenditure and what that could mean for deficits and fiscal space, let us do that against the background of what our track record has been in that area during the past six years.